


Hollow Point

by asuralucier



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Banter, Best buds, Bros who kiss, Cougar patches and stitches him up, Gunshot Wounds, M/M, Pre-Canon, hurt!Jensen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asuralucier/pseuds/asuralucier
Summary: After a (mostly) successful (stealth?) mission, Cougar looks after Jensen.
Relationships: Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez/Jake Jensen
Comments: 11
Kudos: 79
Collections: Hurt Comfort Exchange 2020





	Hollow Point

**Author's Note:**

  * For [donutsweeper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/gifts).



> With thanks to my beta, ictus.

In Jensen’s defense, he’d only closed his eyes in anticipation because whenever Cougar got that sort of look in his eye, it meant they were going to kiss.

Speaking of. Did people really do that? Kiss while their eyes were open? Maybe they did, because it took all kinds of crazy to make the world go round. Because that was what it was, crazy. 

So yeah, it was definitely that, and definitely not because Jensen’s head was pounding like it was about to explode. He was pretty good at shifting pain from one place to the other; if his head hurt, it meant that Jensen had to think less about how he was hurt other places. For one thing, he was also keeping his eyes squeezed shut because when he brushed a shaky hand by his hip, near his kidney, that didn’t feel right at all. A bullet hole where skin should have been. Just great, like a cherry on a sundae. 

Jensen tried to remember if he’d been shot. He must have, but everything had been happening so fast. He was a physical enough guy but not a superhero or anything. Trying to outrun a rain of bullets meant that he was probably going to get unlucky once or twice.

Something else that Jensen tried to remember, especially since he could rest now, was that usually he got pretty darn lucky. 

Cougar was here, anyhow; it wasn’t a big deal even though Jensen had been careful not to disclose where he’d been going. If he had, it wouldn’t be much of a stealth mission anymore. The first time he’d brought it up, Clay and the guys had been less than impressed. Fine, whatever, Jensen liked stealth missions as much as the next guy.

But Cougar had been listening, as usual. Cougar, and whatever the fuck he’d fired into the third storey window, thereby saving Jensen’s ass, had arrived in the nick of time. Five seconds later, Jensen would have been toast. 

“Keep your eyes open,” said Cougar from somewhere. He sounded both close and far away, like he was trying to reach Jensen through a thick veil of fog. “C’mon, Jensen.” 

“I’m here,” Jensen muttered hazily. He couldn’t tell where he was, exactly, except that when he tried to move his head, he knocked back against linoleum tiles without any give. Okay, probably a bathroom. Made sense. This was confirmed when he felt Cougar lift his glasses gingerly off of his face, and then Jensen heard the telling rush of water from a faucet. 

The metal of his glasses, slightly wet, and cold when it touched his skin, woke Jensen up just a little. 

What really woke him up was the pain that hit him all at once, not seconds later. 

“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ,” Jensen wheezed as Cougar leaned in to to press something that was white hot against the ugly, gaping wound near his hip. He tried to squeeze enough air from what felt like his mangled lungs and through his clenched teeth, every part of him tight with a second wave of pain. It wasn’t as if Jensen hadn’t been shot before, but honestly, it was the sort of thing that took Jensen by surprise every time. 

“Disinfectant,” said Cougar. “No exit wound. Okay?” 

If “Okay” was a bus stop in Miami Beach, then Jensen was maybe hanging somewhere around Puerto Rico, at a push. He was going to get there. Jenson bit down hard, trying to get some of the pain to go to the tension in his jaw, where it was at least a bit more bearable. He managed to get out, “Okay. Doesn’t hurt.” 

Cougar just looked at him, up from underneath the slightly bruised rim of his Stetson. 

“Wait, wait, wait.” It took a tremendous effort for Jensen to rush out the three words before Cougar could jam a pair of what looked like tweezers into--not that Jensen thought that the guy was just gonna jam in there and go to town, just--

Cougar stopped. 

“Something in my pocket,” said Jensen, and when Cougar’s expression turned a few degrees, Jensen rolled his eyes. “C’mon. You think? It’s for the stealth mission! We already know I’m going to get it from Clay tomorrow.” 

“Stealth mission.” Cougar made an amused noise in his throat. But he reached inside Jensen’s pocket, very careful not to jostle him too much. Jensen held his breath, until Cougar held out a thumb drive. 

Most importantly, the thumb drive didn’t seem damaged, and Jensen was all set to punch the air in victory before the rest of his body protested--loudly. He tried to wince only a little. “Ow. Well, it _was_. I _was_ being stealthy! Until you showed up with that...um, thing? Pooch is gonna kill you. He was saving that for a special occasion.” 

Cougar looked at him seriously. That is, more serious than usual. He said, “It was.” 

Jensen couldn’t find anything to say to that. 

Cougar managed to gauge the bullet out of Jensen without upsetting his insides too much. (He said, by the way of apology, ” 'S only my third time.”) 

Jensen could have said something to that, but he was trying hard to stay conscious. 

After that, Cougar did most of the work lifting Jensen out of the tub by snatching him up under the pits. (That was where he was, a bathtub.) He nodded towards the door and Jensen tried to take a step, his leg was all, _nope, man, no can do._ He could practically feel the adrenaline leaving his body for the second time.

“Maybe I’ll just...lie down. Get comfortable.” Easier said than done, but Jensen thought he accomplished that, in the end. Above him, the yellow light-bulb flickered, but not ominously or anything. Just bad engineering.

Cougar nodded. 

“Whatever will I do without you, Coug?” It was always a hell of a time, Jensen thought, trying to get comfortable after amateur surgery, but there was always something calming about watching Cougar work. There was a quiet rhythm to it, the way the guy was wrapping up bloodied towels and suture and tossing them all in the dingy little trash can underneath the sink. For now, that was fine. 

This done, Cougar sat down cross-legged next to where Jensen was lying and leaned back against the tub. He seemed almost relaxed. 

“ _Yo no se_ ,” Cougar said, with a mild smile playing at the edge of his mouth, as if he was still making up his mind about it. He never did smile any wider than that, as if he was shy about something. Still, Jensen never had any doubt that Cougar was a friendly, accommodating guy. “But guess you never have to find out. ‘Cause I’m not going anywhere. Even if you do something _muy stupido_.” 

Jensen couldn’t tell whether he was still delirious from having a bullet dug out of him, or that Cougar really had just spoken an inordinate amount of words in, wouldn’t you know it, actual sentences. 

Talk about a special occasion, Jensen couldn’t help but grin. He licked across his front teeth and maybe he had a chipped tooth. 

“See.” Jensen went in for a fist-bump and ended up with a half-hearted swat to Cougar’s shoulder. Cougar caught Jensen’s hand on its rebound, and kept hold of him, pressing his thumb into the grooves of Jensen’s split knuckles, but not hard enough to make Jensen wince. Jensen tried not to pay too much attention to how the slightly callused skin of his thumb grazed his injury. “Always knew you were soft inside, underneath all that macho.” 

Cougar fixed Jensen with a look, as if to say in not so many words, _what the fuck_. But again, in a kind of friendly way. Cougar’s face was always flexible like that, in a way Jensen liked a lot. But then he made a soft noise, a lot like he was thinking about laughing. “And you, under all that tough guy--”

“You think I’m a tough guy?” Jensen cut him off, if only to savor the moment. “Thanks, bro.” 

Cougar opened his mouth, but then his eyes did the talking instead. Even if Cougar didn’t always say it, Jensen liked to think that he knew the guy well enough by now. Cougar reached out and caught Jensen under his chin, keeping him right where he should be. Then he said, “You talk too much.” 

“Yeah, probably,” Jensen said agreeably and inched forward, letting his eyes slip shut. “What are you gonna do about it?”


End file.
